


Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

by Escalus



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Babylon 5 References, Canon Compliant, Episode: s03e02 Chaos Rising, Gen, Insults, Meta, Missing Scene, Star Trek References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:33:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26331952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Escalus/pseuds/Escalus
Summary: After the fight in the bank vault begins inChaos Rising, Stiles and Peter discuss the possible outcome and the strengths and weaknesses of the people involved.
Relationships: Scott McCall & Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 7
Kudos: 33





	Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone thought that my last meta story was a little rough on Stiles, so here is a Stiles positive story.

“Scott? Scott, are you hearing this? Scott!” Stiles shouted into the phone, but all he could hear was a snarl before the line went dead.

Peter closed his eyes and shook his head. “It’s too late. It’s already begun.”

“What?”

Peter walked over to the couch and sat down. “I heard the challenging growls. The fight’s begun.”

Stiles turned and sprinted toward the door, grabbing his keys.

“Stop. It’s pointless.” Peter complained, putting his feet up on the table.

“Scott and Derek could be in trouble!”

“They _are_ in trouble. Boyd and presumably Erica are going to try to rip them limb from limb.” Peter reached over to the end table and picked up his phone.

Stiles paused at the sheer disconnect between Peter’s words and his attitude. “We have to help them.”

“No, we actually _don’t._ What’s just as important is that we actually _can’t._ At either of our top speeds, the bank is still ten minutes away. The fight will be over long before then. This won’t be a dance; it will be kill or be killed with the worst aspects of animalistic savagery.”

“So you’re going to sit there and do nothing?”

“You’re not listening. There’s nothing you or me can do. Right now, I’m going to check the weather forecast before going over there to pick up the pieces. Give the victors enough time to leave or calm down.” He glanced up from weather.com. “I wouldn’t worry too much. Derek is an alpha; in a one-on-one match, he’ll most likely win against his opponent, though he’ll probably have to kill them.” Peter smirked. “He’ll sulk for months, though it’s nothing he hasn’t had to do before.”

“But Scott—”

“Oh, that’s a different story entirely. No training. No pack. Spineless. He’s a goner for sure.”

“You asshole!”

“Oh, my.” Peter rolled his eyes. “As I said just a few minutes ago, do you think I really care?”

“I think,” Stiles spat back at him, “that you’re a coward.”

The older man’s eyes narrowed as he deliberately turned off the phone in his hands and put it on the table. “Not a particularly wise thing to say to a werewolf when you’re standing alone with him in an empty building.”

“As I said just a few months ago, I’m not afraid of you.” 

“Oh? Maybe I was wrong to think you were the clever one.”

Stiles stalked across the loft to stand right in front of Peter and look him square in the eye. “No, I am the clever one. For example, I know I’m safe right now because my back isn’t turned to you.” He gritted his teeth. “I read the police reports. You killed that super-dangerous video store clerk from behind.”

“It’s called tactics.”

“You’re an alpha werewolf – whoops, you _were_ an alpha – though I suppose since he magicked his fat ass up a ladder, you couldn’t be too careful.” Stiles sneered at the thought. “I understand tactics, and I learned that they’re based on the strength of your position. If you’re weak or just without conviction, you have to resort to certain underhanded tactics, like threatening someone’s mother to get them to work with you.”

Peter ran a tongue over his teeth. “True. It does turn out to be an effective tool in getting people to do all sorts of terrible things, like ignoring a friend in danger.”

Stiles rolled his eyes and then blew a raspberry.

“You’re telling me that you’re not upset that Scott let you languish in Gerard’s clutches?”

“You know, Scott may not be the fastest runner in the intellectual footrace, but he does have this tendency to make the right decisions.”

“Abandoning you was the right decision? I think someone might have a teeny-weeny self-esteem problem. I hear it’s common among teenagers.”

“He didn’t abandon me; I have 17 text messages and a locker door he ripped off its hinges that say otherwise. I even had to pay to have that fixed!” Stiles expressed his outrage at the imposition. “But if he had tried to rescue me rather than stop Jackson, I would have beat his ass so hard it would have taken him a week to heal it.”

“Somehow, Stiles, I don’t think you’re so noble that you would put Derek’s pack above your own safety.”

“Noble my hiney. Gerard kidnapped me, and my father is the Sheriff. You don’t think that eventually my dad would have put two-and-two together and noticed that the high school principal disappeared at the end of the victorious State Championship game, especially when there was a dead student on the field? He would have gone to question Gerard, and that old bastard was dangerous enough by himself, but with a pet kanima? My father would most likely be dead. Scott knew that my father’s safety would be more important to me than anything else. I literally taught him that with lacrosse balls and duct tape.”

“I had wondered why you weren’t angrier with him.”

“I was held a little over three hours. I’m not a wimp; I can take a beating. I’m not weak, and Scott doesn’t think I am.” Stiles sniffed. “In any event, I took a great deal of pleasure knowing that I didn’t do what Gerard tried to make me do.”

“I should have bitten you,” Peter remarked slyly. “You would have made an excellent werewolf.”

“And I told you no. I don’t want to be like you.”

“But you are like me!” Peter laughed in Stiles face. “Intelligent. Ruthless. Amoral. I wouldn’t have had to convince you of the necessity of eliminating the Argents. You would have been the perfect pack member. All you lack right now is the physical power to reach your potential.”

Stiles shrugged. 

“Doesn’t it burn to watch Scott leave you behind while he grows into power he has no idea how to use?”

Stiles turned away and went for his book bag, shoving things into it.

“Did I strike a nerve?” Peter slid his own jacket on. 

Stiles didn’t answer. Instead, he packed up his belongings and started heading toward the door. 

“You shouldn’t be ashamed of it.” 

Stiles stopped still in his tracks. 

“There are advantages to being like we are. We have a certain degree of freedom that other people lack. And we have a certain measure of competence derived from our perspective.” Peter took a few steps toward him. “You could be very helpful to me, and I could be very helpful to you.”

“Why would I want your help?”

“You see the world as it is now, and you’re smart enough to understand that if you can see the monsters, they can also see you. Derek’s too crippled by doubt and self-loathing. Scott’s too weak because of his optimism and morals. When it comes to protecting what we truly care about, it’s good to know who you can ask for a favor.”

Stiles stomped toward the exit of the loft and put his hand on the metal level. Without turning back to Peter, he started talking.

“Scott likes _Star Trek._ ” 

The non-sequitur brought Peter up short. “Huh? Why would I care what vapid television program he likes?”

Stiles turned to Peter, with a different look on his face than usual. This was cold and serious. “Because I’m trying to give you some insight into why you’re wrong about Scott and why you’re wrong about me.”

Peter gestured sarcastically at him for to go on.

“Scott likes _Star Trek._ I’ve tried to get him to watch _Star Wars,_ but he just hasn’t yet … it’s infuriating. It’ll happen sometime, though.” Stiles took a breath. “I think it’s important for you to understand exactly why he likes _Star Trek._ He likes how things work in it.”

“Communism, enforced positivity, and techno-babble?” 

“No. Yes. Well, not the way you put it. The people in command in _Star Trek_ – Kirk, Picard, Cisco, and Janeway – believe in solutions. People make problems, so it makes sense to them – and to Scott – that people can fix those problems. They don’t …” Stiles paused while trying to think of the right words. “They don’t believe in no-win scenarios. If there’s no apparent answer right away, it’s just because they haven’t found one yet. They also believe in people. They despise violence, even though they’re willing to use it, because while corpses can’t cause problems, they can’t fix them either.”

“I think you and I would both prefer less problems in total. The real world is cold and hard, and while foolish idiots like Scott spend time looking for a bloodless solution for problems that have soaked in blood for centuries, I have a more efficient solution right here.” Peter dropped his claws with an audible sound.

“He’s not foolish, and he’s not an idiot.” Stiles shook his head. “Looking at the world like he does takes more strength than you have. It takes more than I have. I may be smarter than him – I am smarter than him, by a long shot – but I tend to give up while he’s still trying to make things better.” He smirked as a memory came to him. “Because imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“You don’t really believe that.”

“Not really. It’s because I’m not a _Star Trek_ fan, though.” Stiles nodded vigorously. “I’m _Babylon 5,_ all the way. I believe in survival. I believe in preserving myself and the people I love. Sinclair, Sheridan and Ivanova didn’t try to act as if every problem had a solution, but they believed in fighting for what was important. They also believed that they didn’t have to make the universe into a darker place while they were doing it.”

Peter sneered. “Noble self-sacrifice isn’t your calling, Stiles.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I like the show for other reasons, too. The ships are just cooler. I also prefer the writing. There’s this one quote that I think about when you show up in my life and try to manipulate people into listening to you.”

“And what would that be?”

Stiles took a step right into Peter’s personal space. “I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this.” He wiggled his fingers in the werewolf’s face. 

Peter pushed the hand away. “You follow Scott and his bland morality, and I’ll be here long after you’re in the ground.”

“We’ll see. But you will never get me on your side, you useless animate corpse.” Stiles’s phone rang and he pulled it out. “Because I’m smart. You try to tell me that I should be glad to be like you because the world is terrible and dangerous. It’s people like you that make it terrible and dangerous. Oh, thank God.”

“They survived?”

“That wasn’t Scott. It’s Lydia. She needs me, and as much as I’d love to spend more time putting you down, I would much prefer spending time with people I care about. Ciao, asshole.”

Stiles opened up the loft door and slammed it behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from Season 3, Episode 15 of Star Trek, the original series.


End file.
